The plan was a 2 hour flight, launched pre-dawn, in an attempt to capture the sunrise, then land in Murrieta valley (30 miles from launch) – Things don’t always go according to plan…

We launched the balloon from Shapell Park 33.8790 -117.7772 at 06:18, and the predicted impact area was to be in Murrieta valley, 53km (33miles) from launch.

JHAB2 Flight Predictions

This time trying to track the balloon, we used the same as the last flight, a SPOT GPS and my phone with InstaMapper on it. Again the InstaMapper didn’t work, it may have been from my phones alarm going off, but we’ll just pretend it didn’t happen. So the same thing happened last time with the SPOT, lost signal at 60k ft, and gained signal at 90k ft. However, due to a slight error with our scale, we didn’t have the desired lift we wanted so as we were tracking it and the balloon decided to give us a good scare. The balloon stared to drift closer and closer to the ocean, and we thought that we were going to lose the balloon somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, which I don’t have to tell anyone that that would be bad.

JHAB – Launch

After waking up at still dark o’clock, (05:15), we headed to the park to get the balloon ready and in the air so it could capture the sunrise, which was coming fast. We launched the balloon just in time for it to get up and start taking pictures before it hit a tree, at which point all of us thought we were doomed. Turns out wind is ever so helpful when it comes to sturdy boxes and weak branches, our capsule was able to break free of the branches after a minute or two and off the balloon went. Little did we know that in the process of hitting the tree, it knocked out the camera we set into the bottom (which worked, but took 1700 picture of the inside of the capsule) and tweaked the GoPro so that it is now taking angled videos.

JHAB was setup and ready to launch by 0610; – the planned lift was to be 5.5 lbs. with an estimated ascent rate of 1100 ft /min, burst after 93 minutes of flight with a 2 hour total flight time.

Our digital scale was giving us a hard time again and we based upon the post flight data we launched the balloon with about 2 lbs. less lift than planned. With only 3 lbs of lift, and a 3.6 lbs payload, this caused JHAB to ascend at roughly 820 ft /min! While sitting at Starbucks after liftoff, we watched in horror as the SPOT readings came in, and JHAB headed out towards the Pacific Ocean!

JHAB2 - Going out to sea

At almost the 2 hour mark, SPOT sent the same anomalous readings as the last flight – three of the exact same longitude and latitude for 30 minutes. This also happened on JHAB1, which caused us to wonder the desert for an hour. This time, we decided to begin to drive to the last known point and wait for another reading from SPOT – somewhere between Oceanside and Encinitas; more than 70 miles away from the launch site!

JHAB – Recovery

So after we launched the capsule at 06:18, we made our way over to our balloon headquarters, Starbucks. Once there we started to track the progress of the balloon using both SPOT and Instamapper vis the iPhone.

From the points that we were receiving it was telling us that the balloon was heading out into the ocean. So instead of driving out to the marina and renting a boat, we decided to wait a bit longer and see if the balloon was making its way back to land.

So at the hour 40 mark, we started getting some solid points from the SPOT so we left Starbucks and went on the hunt. At first we thought it had landed because following the points, we got three points all in the same location, but we saw this strange anomaly last time too. But we had had enough coffee, so we drove out to the “landing site”; the last three points said it was, somewhere near Encinitas.

Once there we realized that the GPS had brought us to a ravine. So against our better judgment, we trusted the GPS and went looking for the capsule. This feeling seems awfully familiar, but after about twenty minutes of figuring out how to cross the ravine, with such ideas as a branch pal vault and just jumping over at full speed, we got another hit from the SPOT and that relieved some of us. Off we went further south to El Cajon, which was another 25 miles away from where we were. Upon reaching the city limits of El Cajon, we were able to use Google Maps to find the exact spot where the capsule landed, again in someone’s yard! We were really lucky – the 8 Freeway was less than 100 yards from the impact zone!

Once we arrived at the house, the owner saw us and came outside and asked if we were looking for the balloon, – “yep, that would be us.” We were relieved and excited to have found our wayward JHAB – 106 miles by road and more than 85 miles by air from the launch site.

Josh and Tyler - JHAB2 Recovered

We are calling JHAB2 a successful failure. Due to the fill and lift error, the planned 2 hour flight turned into a 3 hour 41 minute total flight, but we did manage to capture some incredible images!

We caught the sunrise!

And one of the canon’s caught the balloon burst! Even though we added a 2nd battery pack to the GoPro, it cut out after 3 hours, and didn’t capture the decent, but the canon caught the burst, and we time lapsed the descent. It was very rapid this time; as it appears the parachute didn’t fully open. The GoPro images were amazing, even though they’re at an angle, the images of the California coast are spectacular.

Our USB Datalogger worked this time as well. It captured temperature readings every 10 seconds for the duration of the flight. The lowest temperature recorded was -40 c !

The video of JHAB2’s flight turned out great!, We found a composer from Germany, Jan Jendrkowiak, who did a score for another HAB project, and we asked if we could use it again.

The balloon was equipped with a still and a HD video camera – Canon PowerShot A480 and a GoPro HD video camera. The GoPro camera we used was mounted outside of the payload filming at an angle so that it would capture both the horizon as well as some of the ground level. The battery life of the GoPro, was a major issue as we came to later find out. However, the A480 had plenty of battery life as well as excess space left over on the memory card, which lasted for well over the entire flight. Unfortunately the pictures after the burst of the balloon were rather one sided; as they were pictures of either inside the box once it landed or of the sky as it descended tilted. Still fantastic shots of the descent.

Descent at approx. 5000ft

Inside of the payload

JHAB – Tracking –

We were able to track the balloon, to an extent, using a combination of InstaMapper, downloaded onto my iPhone that we sent up, and a SPOT GPS device. After we retrieved the capsule we found out that my phone either died due to lack of battery life, or magically turned off. Yet the SPOT was able to give us regular GPS coordinates every 10 minutes or so. We did however, lose track of the SPOT once it reached about 60,000 ft, but strangely enough started to get GPS signal again at 90,000 ft, which shouldn’t have happened.

JHAB 1 - Payload Capsule

JHAB1 - Capsule Temperature Control System

JHAB 1 – Temperature Control system were two hand warmers, embedded into the lid, then taped with Kapton tape.

After making multiple predictions using http://habhub.org/predict/ to chart the wind patterns for a chosen day. We were deciding on whether to launch the balloon somewhere near Victorville, which we ended up choosing, and somewhere in Barstow, California. If we launched the balloon in Barstow it would have landed somewhere in the desert, while if we launched near Victorville, it would have landed in someone’s yard, according to the predictions done. After making multiple predictions for a little over a month, we charted the wind patterns early the morning of, as well as the night before, and planned to launch the balloon at 08:00PST. Due to a slight error in balloon handling we lost our first balloon, and didn’t end up launching until 10:17

Flight Path of JHAB 1

Amazingly – the impact site was only 11 miles from the original launch site, and only 5 miles away from the predicted landing site!

Actual Flight Path vs Predicted Flight Path

After arriving at our launch site with our capsule, 1 balloon and a spare, plus our 244cu ft of helium, we started to set up the launch zone.

Launch Pad

The first balloon was setup at 08:05am, but the scale wasn’t giving us a proper reading, and by the time we did get a proper reading, it was at 7lbs of lift. Which if we launched at that much of lift, the balloon would have ascended at a rate faster than we wanted and burst at a lower altitude that we wanted as well. So our plan was to just remove the neck of the balloon filler and release enough helium to get the correct amount of lift we wanted, which was about 4.19 lbs of lift. In the process of doing so my father and I lost grip of the neck and off it went (wish we had a picture of our faces when the balloon took off by itself!). Luckily it wasn’t attached to the payload yet, and we brought a spare 1200g balloon!

Josh and Tyler completing the fill

The second balloon, we did with a lot more precautions. We attached the balloon to the counter-weight with nylon string, which we then attached a second string to my friend’s hand, as to not lose it again. We then adjusted the scale every so often to check to make sure the reading was accurate. We inflated our 1200 gram Kaymont balloon to a little more than 5 lbs of buoyancy with the payload attached. The balloon rose at about 20 feet/second until it reached 111000 feet where it burst due to the expansion of the balloon in the low pressure of near space.

The First Flight of JHAB

With the prelaunch checklist completed, it was time to let JHAB- 1 fly! At 10:08 am on September 18, we let her go. And go she did! As we had calculated with the 4lbs of lift, it ascended at a rate of 1200 ft/min. It was a very clear morning in the high desert and we were able to watch it climb for nearly 30 minutes. We met a very nice local Gary (Nicholson Forklift Service) who also helped us launch and spot JHAB on its climb with his binoculars

JHAB 1 - Begins its ascent

JHAB 1 - Ascending over Hesperia

JHAB1 - -Roughly 15K feet in ascent

JHAB1 - -Roughly 30K feet in ascent

JHAB1 - -Roughly 85K feet in ascent

JHAB 1 - Now floating at its highest point of 111K feet

JHAB 1 - At 111K Feet

JHAB – Recovery –

As the balloon rose into thinner atmospheres it expanded to almost 5 times its original size until at about 111,000 feet, at which point the balloon popped and the capsule began its descent. With a parachute attached to the payload, it slowed the fall of the payload and the SPOT GPS was able to triangulate once again. When the capsule landed we were able to locate it using the SPOT, alone, because the InstaMapper didn’t work on my iPhone.

The payload landed in Apple Valley, in someone’s backyard, but we first thought it had landed in the Silver Mountains, according to three distinct GPS coordinates from the SPOT. We found out later after hiking through difficult terrain, in somewhere around 100 degree weather, that the SPOT was broadcasting a signal at 90,000ft.

So after searching the Silver Mountains for over an hour in inadequate hiking apparel, using a car GPS to locate the capsule, we entered the data that was given to us from the SPOT, after that GPS ran out of battery we walked back to the car, and once there we checked the SPOT’s signals again and found that it was still on the move. After about 15 minutes of driving we tracked it down to a small community in Apple Valley, to someone’s backyard.

Overall, the project went very well. We did learn quite a bit about launching High Altitude Balloons. Here are a few notes:

GoPro Pro tip: We learned that the GoPro can fog up if sealed at a different environment (we used the waterproof housing, and sealed it at closer to sea level) than the area you launch it from, which caused condensation on the inside at about 10K feet. Next flight we’ll use the non-waterproof housing and the gopro anti-fog strips.

Canon A480 and the CHDK script: The script we used (and tested, then tested, and tested again), worked great. One item we missed during prelaunch was to turn off Autofocus and set to infinity. With Autofocus on and the spinning of the capsule, we didn’t get as clear as picture as desired. We’ll follow our prelaunch notes for next flight and ensure the camera is set properly.

Battery Life: The standard GoPro battery wasn’t enough to last the entire journey. It only lasted a little bit over 2 hours, while the whole journey lasted a little over 3 hours. Next launch we have the extra GoPro battery back which should double the record time. The Lithium batteries in the Canon worked flawlessly, providing power for the entire flight, and was still taking pictures at recovery.

Lift Test: We learned after the small hiccup with the first balloon, to test the amount of lift frequently, and have several safety strings attached to the filling device.

Multiple GPS devices are never a bad thing: If you can get your hands on multiple GPS devices to track your balloon, it’s in your best interest. If we didn’t have both the SPOT GPS as well as the InstaMapper, we would have never found the capsule. The iPhone stopped recording after only 15 minutes of flight time. The SPOT, sent consistent reading every 10 minutes (no altitude) until 60K feet, then three of the exact same reading at what appears to be 90K feet for some reason (this is what caused the recovery team to go four wheeling, and a nice 4 mile desert hike), but then at ground level sent very accurate readings, the final reading at exactly where we found it.

A tight grip can save time: We learned that a tight grip when adjusting anything on the balloon is probably a good idea.

Bring spare parts: Learned this the hard way, it’s a good idea to bring spare parts for assembling the balloon filling device, as well as spare balloons. We ran out of helium due to the first balloon prematurely launching. Luckily we found a Party City a mile down the road, and the manager was kind enough to open 30 minutes early and allow us to rent another tank to complete the fill of the second balloon.